Experience it all... Saw Mill Creek in the Meadowlands canoe guide

The Meadowlands Commission t Pontoon boat cruises and t Environmental remediation guided canoe tours and enhancement projects

t Children’s programs, t Films, book talks, concerts and including our annual Halloween other public events Party and Spooky Walk t Grants, professional help and t School science programs other direct municipal assistance that meet NJ core curriculum to help offset property taxes standards

t t Guided birding walks, Scientific research through talks and bird-banding MERI, the Meadowlands demonstrations Environmental Research Institute

t The Flyway Gallery, featuring t MERI Science Library, open to the public local environmental artists The Meadowlands Experience

t Meadowlands Environment t Free trail guides, birding books Center’s interactive educational and other pamphlets displays t Green building guides, t Thousands of acres preserved, assistance and existing examples eight miles of trails, 21 area parks t Public viewing nights and t Millions invested in major astronomy classes at the William flood plain management D. McDowell Observatory projects

About the NJMC: The Commission is the zoning and regulatory agency for the 30.4-square-mile Meadowlands District, composed of parts of 14 municipalities in Bergen and Hudson counties. Created in 1969, the NJMC has fought to end illegal dumping, encourage appropriate development, and protect the remaining open space and wetlands. The NJMC has helped preserve New Jersey thousands of acres and helped create eight miles of trails and 21 parks in the District, and also conducts Meadowlands Commission bird walks, canoe tours and popular pontoon boat One DeKorte Park Plaza • Lyndhurst, New Jersey • 07071 cruises on the . (201) 460-1700 www.njmeadowlands.gov New Jersey About the NJMC’s nature programming: In collaboration with the Bergen County Audubon Meadowlands Commission Society, the NJMC offers free twice monthly bird Meadowlands Environment Center walks as well as other nature walks and additional Two DeKorte Park Plaza • Lyndhurst, New Jersey • 07071 special events. For the schedule click the “Events” (201) 460-8300 button at njmeadowlands.gov. www.njmeadowlands.gov/ec About the NJMC’s Nature Blog: The Meadowlands Nature Blog – meadowblog.net – helps the public keep up with events and nature news in the region, J featuring daily updates and great photography.

Come and explore the New Jersey Meadowlands!

About Saw Mill Creek Wildlife What you need to bring: Management Area: Across the Hackensack River Don’t forget your life jacket, a cell phone or whistle, from Laurel Hill County Park, in Secaucus, the Saw Mill water, sunscreen, insect repellant – and of course a boat Creek Wildlife Management Area is one of the largest and and paddle. It’s also a good idea to bring a buddy. most ecologically diverse marshes in the Meadowlands District. It encompasses roughly 750 acres of wetlands, What you need to know: mudflats and open water between the eastern and western This paddling trail, which is isolated and requires spurs of the . Two types of vegetation crossing the Hackensack River, is suitable for more- dominate, cordgrass (Spartina) and the common reed experienced canoeists and kayakers. Strong winds and (Phragmites). The bottom is mud. tides and boat traffic may be encountered, as well as hunters during the fall and winter. (For more information This salt marsh performs a variety of important functions: on hunting season, see: www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/) it filters the water, absorbs storm surges and provides hatching grounds for fish. The marsh and its mudflats offer At high tide, the muddy shoreline is covered by water. At a smorgasbord for shorebirds and a rest stop along the low tide, the mudflats are exposed, providing a feeding Atlantic Flyway for migratory birds. For humans, the marsh ground for wildlife – but less water for boaters. Plan your offers several forms of recreation, from boating to fishing trip accordingly. (catch-and-release only) and duck-hunting during fall and winter. NOTE: High and low tides occur roughly six hours apart. For daily tide information see: www.saltwatertides.com. Click The canoe and kayak trail, marked at key points with “tides” and then “New Jersey.” Scroll down to “Hackensack numbered, bright-blue signs, is approximately 2.5 miles 1 River” and select “Amtrak RR Swing Bridge,” then jump to long. It takes anywhere from 1 to 3 hours, depending on wind, currents, your paddling pace and how much time you the bottom to enter the date and time of your trip. want to spend in the marsh. Canoe Trail - 2.2 miles Saw Mill Creek Canoe Trail Start and End Point

NJMC Web sites: Our home page: njmeadowlands.gov Our research arm: meri.njmeadowlands.gov Our nature blog: meadowblog.net Our history blog: meadowpast.net SPARTINA MARSH

2 MUDFLAT

About the SPARTINA MARSH HACKENSACK RIVER Hackensack About the Marsh 1 River The marsh, part of the Hackensack The Hackensack River is River estuary, was closed off from roughly 50 miles long, the river’s tidal flow with dikes beginning at Lake Lucille and tide gates starting in the in Rockland County, New 1820s. This effort to drain and York, and filtering down dry out the marsh continued for to Newark Bay. The river nearly 100 years, through work OSPREY is dammed just below the by the Mosquito Commission PLATFORM Oradell Reservoir. Water and others, and resulted in the south of the dam is brackish invasion of the common reed -- a combination of fresh (Phragmites). and salt water. In 1950, a huge November storm struck the area, destroying the dikes and tide gates and LOW MARSH reopening the marsh to tidal flow from the Hackensack. As a result, the conditions changed again, and native cordgrass (Spartina) LAUREL HILL began to replace the Phragmites CANOE LAUNCH that had come to dominate the SECAUCUS, NJ area. The area is now regaining its function as a healthy salt marsh, filtering the water and providing 3 food and habitat for a variety of wildlife.

TIDE GATE

LAUREL HILL COUNTY PARK About Laurel Saw Mill Creek Hill County Park Paddling Trail in between including Saw The 100-acre Laurel Hill Mill. The Meadowlands County Park, operated by Commission went to court As you approach the Hudson County, offers great to stop this plan and was Hackensack River again, look views of the Hackensack successful in protecting these up in the sky for Ospreys. They River and the Saw Mill Creek wetlands. When the tide is have been nesting on the Wildlife Management Area. high enough, you can explore railroad bridges downstream There is a boat launch on the side channels into the and like to fish in the open your right – open dawn marsh along this section of water nearby. to dusk -- and plenty of Move quietly as you paddle the paddling trail. along the channel, so as free parking. The park also As the trail bends slightly to The Portal Bridge, visible not to scare off wildlife, and includes lighted ball fields, the east, you can see Kearny to the south, was built in watch the muddy banks for an information kiosk and Start: The best starting point and Newark up ahead. This 1907 and is the largest on herons, egrets, Diamondback a river-front promenade for the paddling trail is the view gives you a good idea the Northeast Corridor rail Terrapins, Fiddler Crabs and that is part of the Secaucus boat launch at Laurel Hill of how urban and industrial line and the only remaining shorebirds like sandpipers Greenway. County Park, just across the areas surround the lower part center-bearing swing bridge and yellowlegs in Summer. The large rock mass at the river from the marsh. Cross of the Hackensack River. of the three constructed. southeast end of the park the river carefully, watching is what remains of Laurel for currents and boat traffic, Hill. Once much larger, the and head for the bright blue rock was quarried until the th marker at the trail entrance. mid-2o century. Colonists (Paddling becomes easier called the hill “Snake Hill” once you enter the trail.) because of the many large black snakes found there. According to local legend, the hill was also the inspiration for Prudential Insurance’s “Piece of the Rock” logo and slogan. At the Second Marker When the tide is low, keep The land near the bottom the marsh opens up into a your eyes peeled for the At the Third Marker, of the hill once housed mudflat and the straight, ribbed mussels that live in the congratulations, you have churches, several hospitals, man-made channel meets a mud. Often hidden by their reached the end of the a poor farm, an insane wider natural waterway. Turn tangled root mass, these two- paddling trail. The boat asylum and a school. Laurel left and paddle south, along inch long filter-feeders help launch is just across the river Hill itself housed a prison. the original Saw Mill Creek At the First Marker you enter clean the water. You may also to the north, in Laurel Hill Today, those facilities are Channel. the man-made channel – a see little grass shrimp, about Park. Use caution as you gone, and the park provides an inch long, that also feed ditch dug by the old Civilian As you follow Saw Mill Creek, make your way across, and visitors a chance to enjoy on plant detritus. And if you Conservation Corps – the you can see a huge grassy hill check the shoreline on your the Hackensack River and brought your fishing pole, Manhattan skyline is behind – a closed landfill – and the left for the remains of the old the surrounding marshland. you might be able to you, to the east, and the ridge New Jersey Turnpike on your tide gates from the 1950s. hook a striper, white line ahead to the west is right. At one point, this landfill Cormorants often perch on perch or bluefish along North Arlington. was slated to extend all the these wooden structures to this section. (Fishing is way to the Hackensack River, dry their wings. catch and release only.) and to fill all the wetlands

New Jersey Meadowlands Commission One DeKorte Park Plaza t Lyndhurst, NJ t 07071 t 201-460-1700 t www.njmeadowlands.gov